Patent GB-357236-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to cable forming machines
IPC: H01B13/02
Filed: 1930-06-19
Abstract: 357,236. Machines for making cables. STANDARD TELEPHONES & CABLES, Ltd., Columbia House, Aldwych, London.- (Assignees of Reichelt, L. O. ; 327, Manor Avenue, Cranford, New Jersey, U.S.A.) June 19, 1930, No. 18709. Convention date, Aug. 30, 1929. [Class 109.] A machine for assembling, and twisting, strand materials into cables, comprises a flyer for carrying the assembled strands bodily round the supplies, thus introducing two twists in the cable during each rotary movement. In its preferred form the machine comprises a normally stationary drum carrying supplies which are fed through a central passage in the drum, a capstan and endless conveyer chains adapted to engage opposite sides of the finished cable. The supply strands are drawn through a stationary distributing plate and then through a sizing die. Means are provided for locking the flyer and for rotating the drum to facilitate replenishment of supplies and inspection of the drum. In the embodiment, the invention is applied to the manufacture of telephone cables from twisted pairs of insulated electric conductors. The machine comprises a drum 20, a cotton serving head 21, a flyer 22 with interconnected portions 23, 25, a capstan 26, and a take-up reel 27 with a distributer 29. A main shaft 31 with spaced driving gears 32, Fig. 7, selectively engaged by gears 33, 34 is driven from an electric motor 30. The drum 20 carries supply reels 35 which are rotatable about their own axes and which are mounted in interconnected annular parts 36 of the drum 20. The reels 35 each carry a twisted pair 39 of insulated conductors which are tensioned by pulleys 40 mounted on arms 41 and pivoted about pins 43, Fig. 6. The flyer 22 is rotated on rollers 47, spaced annular discs 44, 45 on the flyer having flanged peripheries 46 which engage the rollers 47. A stationary cradle 50 is mounted inside the flyer portion 23 and supports the cotton serving devices. A perforated distributer plate 52 is mounted on arms 51 secured to the drum 20. The flyer 22 carries a sizing die 60 which is coaxial with a central feed passage 37 in the drum, the pairs 39 being drawn from the reels 35 through the passage 37 and the holes of the plate 52. The assembled pairs then pass through a sleeve 61 of the cotton serving head 21. The sleeve 61 is formed with a feed-finger 62 which rotates with the flyer 22 about the pairs 39 to remove cotton threads from a cop 64 and to apply them spirally about the assembled pairs. Mounted upon the cradle 50 in alignment with the head 21 is a magazine of cops 65 which is carried on a core 66, Fig. 6, and fed to the sleeve 61. A sizing die 67, Fig. 6, is slidably journalled in the core 66 and is rotatably connected to the flyer 22. The assembled pairs emerge from the die 67 as a cable unit 68 bound with cotton threads 69. The flyer portion 23 comprises an apertured shell 70 which is rotatably mounted in a pedestal 71 containing the drive and gear for the serving head 21. The flyer portion 25 is formed with a similar shell 72 rotatably mounted in a pedestal 73 which contains driving apparatus and gearing. The parts 23, 25 are interconnected by beams 75, 76. The beam 76 is formed with a groove 77 containing pairs of idler rollers 79, and the cable 68 is carried round a sheave 80 to a sheave 81, Fig. 1, on the flyer portion 25. The cable 68 is centred with respect to a sizing die 88, which is mounted on the pedestal 73, by passing under a sheave 83. The capstan 26, which draws the cable through the machine, consists of a casing 92, Fig. 2, enclosing sprockets 93 on which are mounted endless chains 95. The sprockets 93 are positively driven from the main shaft 31. A register 99 on the capstan is provided for measuring the amount, and rate of passage, of the cable. The take-up comprises a housing 100 and a vertical guide 101 carrying the distributer 29 which consists of a pivoted arm 102 having a roller 103 to engage the cable 68. Figs. 6 and 7 show the driving and gearing arrangements. A shift-lever 104, mounted on the pedestal 73, is connected to a collar 105 which interconnects the gears 33, 34, so that they are slidable as a unit and capable of independent rotation. The gear 33 is slidably keyed on a shaft 106 which is rotated when the lever 104 is in the position shown in Fig. 7. The mechanism for driving one end of the flyer 22 consists in a sprocket 107 on the shaft 106 connected by a chain drive 108 with a sprocket 109 totatable with a hollow hub 112 of the flyer shell 72. The opposite end of the flyer 22 is driven through the normally stationary drum 20 by planetary gearing which comprises large ring gears 115, 116 secured to the annular discs 44, 45 respectively, and meshing with pinions 117 on the ends of shafts 118 rotatably journalled in the drum 20. Change gears (not shown) alter the speed and direction of the flyer. The cotton serving head 21 is driven from the flyer 22. A ring gear 121 on the flyer portion 23 meshes with a pinion 122 which drives the primary pulley 123 of a variable speed transmission, the secondary pulley 125 of which is connected to a pinion 128 meshing with a gear 129 on a rotatable shaft 131. The shaft 131 drives a similar gear 132 meshing with a gear 133 on one end of a hollow rotatable sleeve 134. The sleeve 134 carries, at its opposite end, a gear 136 meshing with a pinion 137 to rotate a gear 139. A shaft 140, journalled in the cradle 50, connects the gear 139 and a gear 141 which, through gears 142, 143, rotates the sleeve 61 of the head 21 at a speed determined by the desired angle of lay of the cotton binder. The cradle 50 is held stationary during the flyer's rotation by planetary gearing. A rotatable shaft 144, carried in the flyer portion 23, has keyed to its ends gears 145, one of which meshes with a stationary gear 146 on the pedestal 71, the other meshing with a stationary gear 147 on the cradle 50. Means for driving the normally stationary drum 20 while the flyer is held stationary comprises the gear 34 which is slidably keyed to a hollow shaft 153. The shaft 153 rotates on the shaft 106 and carries a sprocket 154 chain connected to a sprocket 157. The sprocket 157 is mounted on a hollow shaft 158 which extends through the hub 112 of the flyer. A gear 160 on the shaft 158 meshes with gears 161 on one end of a rotatable shaft 162. Gears 163, on the other end of the shaft 162, engage between them, and mesh with, a gear 164 which is rotatable with a hub 165 secured to the drum 20 and extending through the gear 115. The shafts 162 are rotatably journalled in the flyer 22. - A stationary rack 167, during normal operation of the machine, is engaged by the gear 34 to lock the drum 20 against rotation. To rotate the drum 20 for inspection or replenishment of reel supplies, the lever 104 is actuated to disengage the gear 34 which is then engaged with the gear 32, the gear 33 moving to engage the rack 167, thus locking the flyer 22 against rotation. The capstan 26 and the takeup reel 27 are driven from the shaft 31 through a clutch 168 and gearing which also drives an auxiliary shaft 174 of the distributer 29. By mounting the reel 27 on a portable truck 179, empty reels may be inserted to replace full reels. In operation, the pairs 39 are drawn from the reels 35 through the plate 52 into the sizing die 60 which rotates with the flyer portion 23, and through the cotton serving head 21. The binder 69 is applied to the cable unit 68, and the cable passes through the final sizing die 67, being drawn round the flyer sheave 80, along the grooved rollers 79 and round the sheaves 81, 83. From the pedestal 73 the cable passes through the standard sizing die 88, and is drawn by the capstan 26 to the take-up reel 27.